The University of Southern Mississippi The Aquila Digital Community Honors Theses Honors College Spring 5-2018 Who is the Fairest of Them All? Disney’s Depiction of Non- Normative Embodiment in its Villainesses Caroline Bradley University of Southern Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://aquila.usm.edu/honors_theses Part of the Archaeological Anthropology Commons, Food and Beverage Management Commons, and the Graphic Design Commons Recommended Citation Bradley, Caroline, "Who is the Fairest of Them All? Disney’s Depiction of Non-Normative Embodiment in its Villainesses" (2018). Honors Theses. 579. https://aquila.usm.edu/honors_theses/579 This Honors College Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Honors College at The Aquila Digital Community. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of The Aquila Digital Community. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The University of Southern Mississippi Who is the Fairest of Them All? Disney’s Depiction of Non-Normative Embodiment in its Villainesses by Caroline S. Bradley A Thesis Submitted to the Honors College of The University of Southern Mississippi In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of English in the Department of English May 2018 ii Approved by __________________________________________ Emily B. Stanback, Ph.D., Thesis Adviser Department of English __________________________________________ Luis Iglesias, Ph.D., Chair Department of English __________________________________________ Ellen Weinauer, Ph.D., Dean Honors College iii Abstract The world of Disney has long been criticized for the lack of empowered princesses, racial representation, and unrealistic body images in its princess films. While steps have been made to provide a fairer representation through the bodies of the princesses, there has not been much progress in the way villains’ bodies are depicted. Most Disney villains exhibit a form of disability or non-normative embodiment including missing limbs, old age, or fatness. This thesis will analyze the bodies of three well-known Disney villainesses from three different eras—The Evil Queen, Ursula, and Mother Gothel—and will demonstrate how their bodies reflect the historical and cultural anxieties around non-normative embodiment for the time in which they were created. Keywords: Disney, Disability Studies, Non-Normative Embodiment, Medicine, Fatness, Aging iv Acknowledgments As I come to the end of my time at the University of Southern Mississippi, I want to take a moment to thank a few people that have served as mentors to me throughout this thesis writing experience. I want to begin with my thesis advisor, Dr. Emily B. Stanback. I met her during my first freshman advisement session and began a relationship that would continue for the next four years. I was so excited to go to her office for advisement every semester and hear her thoughts on my future goals and to get her advice when I needed it. I will never forget the day I realized she would not be my advisor for the spring semester of my sophomore year because she was working in France with our study abroad program—disappointed was an understatement. However, I quickly got over my selfishness and immediately looked forward to my junior year because I would have Dr. Stanback as a professor for the first time. Through her teaching, I learned what it meant to be truly passionate about academic work and how research can be exciting and lead to discoveries I never thought possible. Her excitement to teach about what she was passionate about encouraged me to tackle my thesis with the same energy. She built my confidence as a writer and taught me to not be afraid to make bold claims if I felt confident in my ability to support them. I have grown more than I could ever put into words under the guidance of Dr. Stanback, and I am so thankful to have spent the past four years with her as a mentor. I also cannot thank her enough for the time she has dedicated to proofreading and improving my thesis while also opening my eyes to the world of disability studies. I could not have asked for a better thesis writing and learning experience than the one Dr. Stanback has given me. v I would also like to thank Dr. Joyce Inman whose freshman Honors English class inspired my thesis topic. She taught me how to take a more critical approach to Disney instead of just watching the movies from the perspective of a fan. She was another professor that helped to build my confidence in my writing, and when I mentioned my thesis idea to her, she encouraged me to take that topic and go forward. Without Dr. Inman’s class, I may have never thought to write a critical thesis on Disney’s villains, so I want to thank her for teaching me how to take my rose-tinted glasses for Disney off—for teaching me that there is more to the Disney princess world than happily ever afters and fairy godmothers. I also want to thank the Honors College at the University of Southern Mississippi. The four years I have spent in honors classes, forums, and thesis writing have molded me into a young woman with a better understanding of the world outside of south Mississippi. I also want to thank the Honors College for allowing me to have the freedom to pick a thesis topic that I am truly passionate about and that I can be proud to call my own. Thank you to Stacey Ready and Paula Mathis for being invested in my future and me. In fact, thank you both for being invested in every student that is a member of the Honors College. I also want to thank Dr. Ellen Weinauer for her constant support of my academic endeavors and for her friendship during my term as Student Government Association President. I also want to thank Dr. David Davies, former dean of the Honors College, who convinced me during my campus tour of the university and the Honors College that this institution is a place that would push me to become a better student and a better academic while also providing me with valuable relationships with students, faculty, and staff that will last well beyond my college career. Needless to say, Dr. vi Davies was absolutely right. I am so thankful for my time at the University of Southern Mississippi, and I will never forget my four years spent growing and learning at this amazing institution. vii Table of Contents List of Illustrations………………………………………………………………………ix Chapter 1: Introduction ……………………………………………………………….....1 Chapter 2: The Evil Queen and the Great Depression: Fairest Desires and the Necessity of Bodily Strength ………………………………………………....…………………....18 Chapter 3: Ursula's Dark Magic and Fears of Fatness in the 1980s…………………….33 Chapter 4: Old Mother Gothel's Love Affair with Hair and Contemporary Anxieties about Aging……………………………………………………………………………..50 Conclusions……………………………………………………………………………..66 Bibliography………………………………………...……………………..…...……….69 viii List of Illustrations Figure 2.1 The Evil Queen………………………………………………………………23 Figure 2.2 Old Peddler Woman………………………………………………………….29 Figure 3.1 Ursula’s Eyes…………………………………………………………………40 Figure 3.2 Ursula’s Sexuality……………………………………………………………43 Figure 3.3 Ursula and Ariel……………………………………………………………...45 Figure 3.4 Vanessa………………………………………………………………………47 Figure 4.1 Old Mother Gothel…………………………………………………………..55 Figure 4.2 Love of Hair…………………………………………………………………62 Figure 4.3 Gothel’s End…………………………………………………………………64 ix Introduction The world of Disney has faced both popular and scholarly criticism about how it depicts gender roles, race, and body image. However, there has not been adequate attention drawn to the characterization of disability in Disney films, especially in the princess worlds. Specifically, there is a noticeable correlation between Disney villains and non-normative embodiment. While the Disney princess films have been applauded for taking steps forward to provide examples of more independent and racially diverse women, their villains demonstrate Disney’s persistent problematic depiction of non- normative and disabled bodies, which in turn reflects the stigmatized position of the disabled in society. This thesis aims to investigate links between Disney villains and the specific social anxieties around disability and health in the time period during which corresponding Disney Princess films were made. Disney’s princess films follow the stories of perfectly petite princesses and their quests to find true love while villains work to stop their happiness. In Disney’s quintessential good versus evil tales for children, the princesses are always at the precipice of physical perfection. Their petite frames and doe eyes create a beauty standard that becomes synonymous with being ethically and morally good. Meanwhile, in the same story, villains embody disability and non-normativity in some way: Ursula is fat and purple (The Little Mermaid), Lady Tremaine is old and wrinkled (Cinderella), and Doctor Facilier has a hanging belly and a gap tooth (Princess and the Frog). In the films, their physical flaws serve as a reflection of evil. Some Disney villains are overtly disabled. For example, Captain Hook (Peter Pan) is missing a hand, and in the newest Disney film Moana, Tamatoa is missing a leg. However, the villains being analyzed in 1 this thesis do not adhere to the standard definition of disability; instead, the Evil Queen (Snow White), Ursula (The Little Mermaid), and Mother Gothel (Tangled) gesture to disability, especially when considered in a historical context. By applying a disability studies lens to these three villainesses and their princess counterparts, the stories of good versus evil take a backseat, and fears of disability and non-normative embodiment emerge. This thesis will investigate one film from three historical eras or, to borrow Maegen Davis’s formulation, each “wave” of the Disney princess movie franchise:1 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (wave one), The Little Mermaid (wave two), and Tangled (wave three).